HOUSTON – Tank Dell tested himself all week, running routes, dealing with the discomfort of bruised ribs and practicing every day.
After three consecutive practices and missing one game against the Jacksonville Jaguars after landing on the football and suffering a bad bruise against the Minnesota Vikings, Dell is set to return Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.
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“I’m ready to go for sure,” Dell said. “It was tough. I always want to be out there with the guys, but I feel like I had to take a week off to get myself together. So, I just did what I had to do. It comes with the game. I just had to keep my head up, keep focused, be in the treatment room and training room and get myself together.”
The Texans wide receiver caught a season-high five passes for 62 yards on six targets in the Texans’ 34-7 loss to the Vikings, but has just nine catches for 99 yards on 17 targets and no touchdowns with five first downs. He’s on pace for 38 catches for 421 yards after Dell caught 47 passes for 709 yards and seven touchdowns in 11 games as a rookie last season before he broke his fibula and was placed on injured reserve.
Dell’s role has been reduced a bit with so many of the targets distributed to Nico Collins, the NFL’s leader in receiving yards, and four-time Pro Bowl selection Stefon Diggs. Collins is on pace for 128 catches and 2,078 yards and nine touchdowns. Diggs is on pace for 106 catches. There’s less of a workload for Dell right now in offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik’s playbook.
“I would say just him being himself, our team owning our identity and really just playing what we see,” Texans Pro Bowl quarterback C.J. Stroud said. “I think last year was last year. Even though I think he did really great last year, I know he wants to move on from that and do well this year. And he’s very motivated. We’re motivated to get him rolling, too. So, it’s part of my job to get him the ball and to make sure that he gets his fair amount of targets just like everybody else. But, no, that’s definitely a key component to this game is getting Tank Dell going because I think he’s one of the best receivers in this league.”
Dell set a franchise rookie record last season for touchdowns, breaking Owen Daniels’ mark with seven scores.
He’s remaining patient and within the offense.
“It’s just go out and try to make the plays that come to me,” Dell said. “Bobby is going to dial it up and call what he needs to call to win the game.”
Dell adds an element of speed to the Texans’ offense. He’s proven he’s capable of making impactful plays.
“Tank is fast,” Slowik said. “There are people that you say are fast, but Tank is a different level of speed that you feel on the field. Nico has a GPS that other people rarely, if ever hit. Without a doubt, Nico is fast. It just feels different when it is Tank, something about his stride, his turnover that gets on DB’s very quickly. When you run the route the way he runs it and get in and out of breaks the way he can get in and out of breaks and how fast he comes out of them, that just becomes to really hard to cover really fast.
“The more we can help isolate him when needed and in particular, when teams are taking away Nico, when teams are taking away Stef or worried about other matchups on Dalton [Schultz]. It is just a great way for us to isolate a one-on-one that we have supreme confidence in.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 click2houston.com.
